Fluid product dispensing valve and fluid product dispensing device comprising same

ABSTRACT

Fluid product dispensing valve, comprising a valve body ( 10 ), a valve stem ( 20 ) moving in said valve body ( 10 ) between a rest position and a dispensing position, and an annular ring ( 30 ) mounted around said valve body ( 10 ), characterised in that said annular ring ( 30 ) is attached to said valve body ( 10 ), said attachment being substantially radially non-clamping onto said valve body ( 10 ), said annular ring ( 30 ) comprising an axial edge that is proximal with respect to outlet orifice of said valve stem ( 20 ), said annular ring ( 30 ) comprising one or more attachment means ( 35 ) co-operating with the valve body ( 10 ) and provided on or close to said proximal radial edge.

This invention concerns an improved valve. More particularly, thisinvention concerns an improved valve comprising an annular ringassembled around the valve body.

Valves are well known in the state of the art. Their main application isin aerosol recipients for dispensing fluid products together with apropelling gas. The valve comprises a valve body which is fixed in anattachment element, such as a crimpable capsule or similar, designed tofix the valve to a container with a neck seal positioned between themdesigned to create a seal with the container. In some situations, theproduct in the container may be incompatible with the seal materials. Inthis way, certain pharmaceutical, perfume or cosmetic products, as wellas insecticides, etc. may contain constituents that can react with theseals which may absorb or fix these constituents and swell, crack orsuffer damage. The recipient may leak as a result. There may also beexchanges between the seal and the product, causing the product to loseits qualities. Similarly, cases of an active product being fixed on theseal may also be observed. As the containers may remain a certain lengthof time in storage or on the shelf, these disadvantages may be serious,even if the reaction with the seal is not rapid.

To overcome this problem, the use of an annular ring assembled aroundthe valve body has been proposed, designed to limit the contact betweenthe seal and the product as much as possible. The document FR-2 450 758describes such a ring. The use of this ring provides among others theadvantage of substantially filling the dead space situated below theproduct inlet opening in the valve body, in the in-use position of saidvalve, when this concerns a valve that may be used in the invertedposition. In this way, this guarantees that the maximum amount ofproduct is dispensed due to this dead space being limited. The documentFR-2 738 557 describes a similar annular ring, and which substantiallyfulfils the same objectives as that of the document FR-2 450 758. Thespecific design of the ring of the document FR-2 738 557 providesadditional advantages, by limiting further the contact between the sealand the product, by permitting the manufacturing tolerances to becompensated, and also by preventing the sedimentation residues that mayoccur with valves used in the inverted position from being distributed.

The annular rings described above are sleeved onto the valve body, theradial clamping being sufficient to hold said ring in position. Thisembodiment has certain disadvantages however. The radial clamping of thering on the valve body is likely, over the time, to deform said valvebody, such that the clamping may no longer be sufficient to hold thering in position, and it could then slide out of position along thevalve body, such that it could no longer achieve the objectives that ithas been designed for. Furthermore, the deformation of the valve body islikely to cause a risk of the valve stem jamming. This is especiallytrue in the case of dosing valves, in which the valve body contains adosing chamber and a valve stem moving between a rest position and anactuated position. This valve stem has pressure applied by a spring tobring it back to its rest position, and when the user actuates thedosing valve, he presses on this valve stem which moves inside the valvebody to the actuated position in which a dose of the product isexpulsed. The spring then brings the valve stem rod back to its restposition. To obtain maximum performances from the dispensing valve, theclearance between the stem, in particular its lower, internal section,and the valve body, is precisely designed so as to provide the bestperformances. In this case, a slight deformation of the valve body, inparticular the part of the valve body in which the lower part of thestem moves, risks to make the latter jam, and consequently cause thevalve to dysfunction. The risk of deformation of the valve body is evengreater if it has several large sized openings, to allow the product toenter from the container inside the valve. In particular, a valve bodycomprising three longitudinal slots in the side wall of the valve bodyimplies that the valve body has to be relatively flexible, which isincompatible with radial clamping of the annular ring on this valvebody.

An objective of this invention is to provide a valve which does notreproduce the above-mentioned disadvantages.

In particular, one purpose of this invention is to provide a dispensingvalve for fluid products that is safe and reliable in its operation, bysubstantially eliminating the risk of the valve stem jamming when it isactuated.

Another objective of this invention is to provide such a valvecomprising an annular ring around the valve body that is simple andinexpensive to manufacture and assemble.

Another objective of this invention is to provide such an improvedvalve, in which there are no risks of the annular ring assembled aroundthe valve body moving out of position during its working life.

An objective of this invention is therefore a dispensing valve for fluidproducts, comprising a valve body, a valve stem moving in said valvebody between a rest position and a dispensing position, and an annularring mounted around said valve body, characterised in that said annularring is attached on said valve body, said attachment being substantiallyradially not clamping onto said valve body, said annular ring comprisinga axial edge proximal to the outlet orifice of said valve, said annularring comprising one or more attachment means co-operating with the valvebody and provided on or next to said proximal axial edge.

Advantageously, the annular ring is snap-fitted onto the valve body.

According to one advantageous embodiment of this invention, the valvebody comprises a first part of the body, in which slides an internalpart of the valve stem, and a second part of the body, defining a dosingchamber, the second part of the body having an external diameter greaterthan that of the first part of the body, said first and second parts ofthe body being connected by a junction part, said annular ring beingattached to said valve body at the level of said junction part.

Advantageously, the valve body comprises one or more body snap-fit meansco-operating with one or more ring snap-fit means provided on theannular ring.

Advantageously, said body snap-fit means comprise at least one shoulderprovided in the external lateral wall of said valve body.

Advantageously, said ring snap-fit means comprise at least one shoulderprovided in the internal lateral wall of said annular ring.

Advantageously, said body and/or ring snap-fit means have radialdeformation means.

Advantageously, said radial deformation means comprise a radial spacepositioned radially respectively behind said body and/or ring snap-fitmeans.

Advantageously, said annular ring comprises a radial recess positionedaxially behind said ring snap-fit means.

Advantageously, the annular ring is attached to the valve body withradial and/or axial clearance.

Another objective of this invention is a valve unit characterised inthat it comprises a valve as described above, an attachment element toattach said valve to a fluid product container and a seal to make saidcontainer leak proof, said seal being positioned between said attachmentelement and said annular ring.

Another objective of this invention is a fluid product dispensingdevice, comprising a container of fluid product and a valve unit asdescribed above.

Other characteristics and advantages will become clearer in thefollowing description of two advantageous embodiments of the invention,made in reference to the appended drawings, provided by way ofnon-restrictive example, and in which:

FIG. 1 represents a schematical cross sectional view of a valveaccording to one advantageous embodiment of this invention, in the restposition, and

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment.

In reference to the figures, the valve comprises a valve body 10, insidewhich a moving valve stem 20 slides between a rest position, representedon the figures, and a dispensing position, in which the valve stem ispressed inside the valve body. Traditionally, the valve stem has anoutlet orifice via which the product is dispensed. An annular ring 30 ismounted around said valve body 10 and, according to the invention, theannular ring 30 is fixed in substantially loose or non-clamping to thevalve body 10, that is the ring 30, when assembled, exerts only littleor no radial force on valve body 10. The risk of deformation of saidvalve body due to the presence of the ring 30 is therefore eliminated.The ring may be attached to the valve body with a radial and/or axialclearance, which means that the ring, when it is fixed, is in fact heldon the valve body, without necessarily being blocked in position.Preferably, the annular ring 30 is fixed to the valve body 10 by asnap-fit. This snap-fit may be in different forms, for example with orwithout clearance, the attachment or snap-fit means may be provided onthe valve body, 10, on the annular ring 30 or on both, as shown in thedrawings. More precisely, the valve body 10 may comprise one or morebody attachment or snap-fit means 15, preferably in the form of one ormore shoulders made in the external lateral wall of said valve body 10.Similarly, the annular ring 30 may also comprise one or more ringattachment or snap-fit means 35, preferably in the form of one or moreshoulders made in the internal lateral wall of the ring 30.Advantageously, the respective snap-fit means 15, 35, of the valve body10 and the annular ring 30 may comprise angled ramps to facilitate thesnap-fit operation.

Advantageously, as shown in FIG. 1, the ring attachment means 35 aremade on or next to the lower axial edge of the ring 30, in the positionshown in FIG. 1. This lower axial edge corresponds to the proximal axialedge of the ring 30, with respect to the outlet orifice of the valve 20.To facilitate the attachment, and in particular the snap-fit, radialdeformation means 16, 36, may be provided on said attachment means ofthe body 15 and/or on said attachment means of the ring 35. Moreprecisely, as shown in FIG. 1, these deformation means may be made inthe form of a respective radial space 16, 36, positioned radially behindsaid shoulder 15 of the valve body 10 and/or behind said shoulder 35 ofthe annular ring 30. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the ring 30 isfastened by clips or snap-fit when assembled by exerting a radialdeformation force on the snap-fit means, which can deform radially dueto the presence of the two respective spaces 16 and 36, and subsequentlyreturn to their normal position due to their elasticity. In the exampleshown in FIG. 2, the ring 30 is also fastened by clips or snap-fit whenassembled. In this example, only the ring snap-fit means 35 deformradially when fixed. Contrarily to the example in FIG. 1, the shoulderis not formed at the lower edge of the ring 30. It may be formed by aprojection 35 forming a shoulder, and the ring 30 may have a radialrecess 37 positioned axially behind said projection 35, in particular tolimit the contact surface between the ring 30 and the valve body. Thering 30 is therefore attached to a part that is axially more internal ofthe valve body.

Consequently, in the assembled position shown in the figures, the ring30 is attached definitively onto the valve body 10, and in particular itdoes not risk moving during the working life of this valve, for exampledue to deformation of the valve body 10 as was the case in the devicesof the prior art. One advantage of the snap-fit is that when assembled,the radial ring 30 may only exert a very low radial force on the valvebody, or even no radial force at all.

Classically, the valve may be held on the neck of a container (notshown) by means of an attachment element 40, for example made in theform of a capsule or a cup that may be crimped. Of course, otherattachment elements may be envisaged to attach it. The valve is attachedto the container with a seal 50 placed between them, called the neckseal. Advantageously, the ring 30 is, in the assembled position, appliedagainst said neck seal 50, which is consequently blocked between theannular ring 30 and the attachment element 40. In this way, the presenceof the ring 30 limits the contact between the product inside thecontainer and the neck seal 50. Preferably, it is the proximal axialedge of the ring 30 that is in contact with the seal 50. Advantageously,the ring 30 is made from an inert material with respect to the productcontained in the container, and permits all of the previously mentionedfunctions of the rings to be satisfied, as defined in the abovementioned documents of the prior art, which is to say the patents FR-2450 758 and FR-2 738 557.

One advantage of this invention is the possibility of making a valveunit formed by the valve itself, the attachment element 40 and the seal50. This valve unit may then be supplied to the manufacturer of theproduct who consequently simply has to fill the product in a containerand assemble the valve unit on said container by means of the attachmentelement 40.

This invention applies to all types of valve, and especially those whichoperate in the inverted position, but it has additional advantages inthe context of a dosing valve as shown in the drawings.

In reference to these drawings, the dosing valve comprises a valve body10, which contains a dosing chamber 13. This dosing chamber 13 islimited axially by two annular seals, a valve seal 17 and a chamber seal18. These two seals each have a central opening through which a valvestem 20 passes, moving inside the valve body 10 between a rest position,shown in the drawings, and an actuating position. This valve stem isurged towards its rest position by an elastic element 19, such as aspring, thrusting on the one hand on the base of the valve body 10 andon the other hand on an internal part 21 of the valve stem 20. As thistype of dosing valve is known, its operation will not be described infuller detail hereinafter.

The valve body 10 is attached, especially crimped in an attachmentelement 40, such as a capsule, which is then attached, for example bycrimping, to the neck of any container (not shown) with a neck seal 50being placed between them.

Advantageously, the valve body 10 comprises a first body part 11, inwhich the internal part 21 of the valve stem 20 slides, and a secondbody part 12, which comprises the dosing chamber 13. This dosing chamber13 may possibly be formed by a sleeve 60 inserted in the second bodypart 12. As shown in the drawings, the second body part 12 preferablyhas an external diameter that is greater than that of the first bodypart 11, said first and second body parts, 11, 12, being joined by ajunction part 14. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the annular ring 30is attached to said valve body 10 at the junction part 14. Moreprecisely, as shown in FIG. 1, this junction part 14, which may beformed by a part of a radial or conical wall section, comprises bodysnap-fit means 15, which co-operate with the snap-fit means 35 of thering 30. In this way, the ring does not co-operate at all with the firstbody part 11, in which the internal part 21 of the valve stem 20 slides.This is especially advantageous in the case of a dosing valve in whichthe first body part 11 comprises one or more longitudinal slots runningalong the greater part of its lateral wall, to permit the product storedin the container (not shown) to enter inside the valve. The presence ofone or more slots of this type induces a certain flexibility of thevalve body 10, such that even a low radial force exerted on the firstbody part 11 would risk deforming it. Whereas, in efficient dosingvalves, the clearance provided between the internal wall of the valvebody 10 and the valve stem 20 is generally determined very preciselysuch that even a slight deformation of the valve body risks jamming thevalve stem and therefore causing the valve to dysfunction. The internaldiameter of the valve body is not deformed and therefore does not varyover the time, which consequently permits any risk of jamming to beavoided whilst permitting the use of an annular ring 30 with the abovementioned advantages and functions.

In the example shown in FIG. 2, the shoulder(s) 15 of the valve body 10is/are made in the first body part 11. In this case, it is preferablethat the radial force exerted on the valve body by the ring 30 isminimal, or even non-existent, to avoid any risk of deformation of saidvalve body;

This invention has been described in reference to an advantageousembodiment of it, however it is clear that it is not restricted to thisembodiment. On the contrary, those skilled in the art may make manymodifications without leaving the scope of this invention as defined inthe appended claims.

1. Fluid product dispensing valve, comprising a valve body (10), a valve stem (20) moving in said valve body (10) between a rest position and a dispensing position, and an annular ring (30) mounted around said valve body (10), characterised in that said annular ring (30) is attached to said valve body (10), said attachment being substantially radially non-clamping onto said valve body (10), said annular ring (30) comprising an axial edge that is proximal with respect to outlet orifice of said valve stem (20), said annular ring (30) comprising one or more attachment means (35) co-operating with the valve body (10) and provided on or close to said proximal axial edge.
 2. Valve according to claim 1, in which the annular ring (30) is snap-fitted onto the valve body (10).
 3. Valve according to claims 1, in which the valve body (10) comprises a first body part (11), in which an internal part (21) of the valve stem (20) slides, and a second body part (12), defining a dosing chamber (13), the second body part (12) having an external diameter greater than that of the first body part (11), said first and second body parts (11, 12) being joined by a junction part (14), said annular ring (30) being attached to the valve body (10) at said junction part (14) or at said second body part (12).
 4. Valve according to claim 1, in which the valve body (10) comprises one or more body snap-fit means (15) co-operating with one or more ring snap-fit means (35) provided on the annular ring (30).
 5. Valve according to claim 4, in which said body snap-fit means (15) comprise at least one shoulder (15) provided in the external lateral wall of said valve body (10).
 6. Valve according to, in which said ring snap-fit means (35) comprise at least one shoulder (35) provided in the internal lateral wall of said annular ring (30).
 7. Valve according to claims 4, in which said body snap-fit means (15) and/or said ring snap-fit means (35) comprise radial deformation means (16, 36).
 8. Valve according to claim 7, in which said radial deformation means (16, 36) comprise a radial space (16, 36) respectively positioned radially behind said body (15) and/or ring (35) snap-fit means.
 9. Valve according to claim 1, in which said annular ring (30) comprises a radial recess (37) positioned axially behind said ring snap-fit means (35).
 10. Valve according to claim 1, in which said annular ring (30) is attached to said valve body (10) with a radial and/or axial clearance.
 11. Valve unit, characterised in that it comprises a valve according to any of the preceding claims, an attachment element (40) to attach said valve to a container of fluid product and a seal (50) to make the seal with said container, said seal (50) being positioned between said attachment element (40) and said annular ring (30).
 12. Fluid product dispensing device, characterised in that it comprises a fluid product container and a valve unit according to claim
 11. 